The present disclosure relates to brake control systems for the control of air brakes on rail vehicles. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a unitized brake assembly including a pipe bracket coupled to a brake cylinder and a control valve mounted on the pipe bracket.
In a “single-sided” type pipe bracket and control valve arrangement, it is known to mount an emergency and a service portion of a control valve to a common or front face of a pipe bracket and have ports for the brake cylinder, brake pipe and reservoirs on the opposing or back face of the pipe bracket, as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,142. A retainer valve is mounted to the front face of the pipe bracket between the service and emergency portions and a cut-off cock is mounted to the brake pipe port on the back face. The pipe bracket is mounted to the rail vehicle by cantilevered flanges.
Each of the various known mounting options requires a great deal of piping between the pipe bracket and, for example, the brake cylinder, empty/load device and auxiliary and emergency reservoirs. The combination of the mountings on the pipe bracket and the piping requirements make for a crowded or cramped arrangement for maintenance and operations purposes. Moreover, mounting of the components and connection of all the piping leads to excessive labor and parts inventory costs.
It is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,348 to mount a control valve and a brake cylinder to a pipe bracket and to have this unitized assembly mounted to a rail vehicle using bolts to mount both the pipe bracket and the brake cylinder to the rail vehicle. The unitized assembly disclosed does not provide a provision for an empty/load device.
It is also known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,712, to connect a separate empty/load device to a brake cylinder-control valve arrangement via piping connections.